PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It is in other words a document that one can read on any computer provided that one has the proper viewer. It is an Adobe creation that now has become a web standard. It may have been originally created for business purposes, but the same for-business features are the same features that now make it useful for any purpose. Not only businessmen use PDF; academicians too use PDF not only for office digital documents but also for lectures and resource materials for students.

So why do I use the PDF for documents meant for distribution on the web? Here are my reasons:

1. Unlike a document like Microsoft Word, the PDF document cannot be infected by virus.

2. It can be read on any computer using Adobe’s free Adobe PDF Reader.
3. The document once opened cannot be edited. (This is an important feature, for obvious reasons

   .)

4. Although not editable, it can be commented on.
5. It works well with a browser. Current versions of the PDF now allow its reader to make it a launchpad for the web.
6. The current state of software development makes it easy to create PDF documents. One can create an RTF document and convert it into PDF using conversion utilities available on the web for free. There is even a free RTF editor (called Tomahawk PDF Plus) that directly saves into PDF (this is called “native PDF” as opposed to “scanned PDF”).
7. It can be used for computer presentations.
8. It is the standard for “porting” documents.

There are a lot of articles about the Portable Document Format. There is one at WikiPedia. There are a bunch of articles from Adobe. Apart from these, I found two articles from sources unrelated to Adobe.COM that say in a few words why one should use PDF: one is a pitch for a text to PDF conversion utility, while another one is made by an academician.